"Do you know that Kemerovo is the leader in terms of HIV spread? Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg follow it closely," she told participants in the youth educational form Territory of Senses

DVORIKI VILLAGE / Vladimir region/, July 23. /TASS/. Russian cities of Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg top the list of cities with highest HIV rates, Anna Popova, the chief of Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Sunday.

"Do you know that Kemerovo is the leader in terms of HIV spread? Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg follow it closely," she told participants in the youth educational form Territory of Senses.

"We have two epidemics - that of drug addiction and HIV infection," she said, adding that they overlap geographically.

When asked whether a HIV test is to be obligatory for those entering higher education establishments, Popova said she sees no reason in that. "I see no need in doing anything in a mandatory matter. I think everyone has the right to health and everyone that the right to implement that," she stressed.